Editor’s note. This is the first entry in a new, bimonthly ACCP Report series which serves to highlight and provide visibility to ACCP members with regard to their career paths, contributions, and experiences with ACCP. If you would like to nominate someone to be featured, visit the Web site at http://www.accp.com/membership/spotlight.aspx. Nominations are accepted on a continuous basis. Members who are selected will be asked to complete a biographical sketch and brief questionnaire for use in developing their member spotlight summary.

Dr. Shareen El-Ibiary is an associate professor of pharmacy practice at Midwestern University College of Pharmacy in Glendale, Arizona. She received her Pharm.D. degree from the University of South Carolina in Columbia, South Carolina, in 2000 and completed a general pharmacy practice residency at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) in 2001, where she subsequently completed a certificate program for additional training in clinical research. She has been board certified in pharmacotherapy since 2003. Dr. El-Ibiary started her academic career at UCSF in the area of drug information, where her interest in women’s health developed from receiving several consumer questions pertaining to that area. She made the change to focus on women’s health and worked in a specialty clinic in the latter part of her time at USCF. During her time in California, she was very active in local, state, and national organizations. She was president of the Golden Gate Society of Health-System Pharmacists and, in 2007, became a fellow of the California Society of Health-System Pharmacists. She has been the public policy liaison and chair of the ACCP Women’s Health Practice and Research Network (PRN) and is currently an ACCP College of Pharmacy Faculty Liaison. She has been awarded project preceptor of the year and the Dean’s Apple Award for Teaching Excellence at UCSF.

Three years ago, she made the move to Midwestern University in Glendale, Arizona, where she maintains an internal medicine practice at Banner Thunderbird Medical Center. Although her practice is internal medicine, she maintains a strong interest in women’s health and continues to collaborate with others in the field. Her areas of interest and research include women’s health, specifically hormones and contraception, pharmacogenetics, and innovative teaching. Dr. El-Ibiary currently teaches a variety of courses at the College and coordinates a women’s health elective, as well as a first-year pharmacy course, “Integrated Sequences 2 and Professional Skills Development.” She is involved in many different publications, including writing a PSAP chapter in women’s health and serving as the women’s health section editor and chapter author for Koda-Kimble’s Applied Therapeutics. She also serves on the editorial board for the Journal of the American Pharmacists Association and is a current faculty member of ACCP’s Updates in Therapeutics^®: The Pharmacotherapy Preparatory Review and Recertification Course.

Dr. El-Ibiary’s early exposure to the health care setting came from her mother, a physician. Dr. El-Ibiary showed an early interest in the sciences, and her love of teaching led her to seek a career path that would encompass each of these areas. She first became interested in clinical pharmacy while working as a pharmacy technician and pursuing her undergraduate degree. In particular, she liked the idea of making interventions and counseling patients. What cemented her future career choice, though, came later in pharmacy school, when she identified with one of her professors who was a clinical specialist and whose faculty job description sounded like the ideal career path. She saw that, as a faculty member, she could combine the clinical/science aspect of pharmacy with her love of teaching in an academic setting. She sought out information on how her professor obtained her position, which set her on a path that has allowed her to touch the lives of numerous students, patients, and colleagues.

ACCP has been an integral part of Dr. El-Ibiary’s career. Many of her opportunities have come to her through her involvement with the College. When she first started as a faculty member, she saw a meeting announcement for the ACCP Annual Meeting and noted that a pre-seminar workshop for junior faculty was scheduled. Although she was unfamiliar with the organization at the time, she attended the session, which she believes was one of her best decisions. She met other junior faculty starting out, made several friends/connections, and learned about finding a mentor and ways to deal with struggles in academia. It was an excellent seminar. She enjoyed every aspect of the meeting and met experts in various fields. As she focused her interests on women’s health, she found the Women’s Health where she connected with other colleagues interested in and dedicated to women’s health. The connections she made through the PRN were priceless. From this group, ideas, opportunities, and growth in women’s health practice emerged. She was able to take more of a leadership role within the group, which provided her many opportunities with respect to collaborations, publications, and speaking engagements. Her knowledge in the area grew as well from learning about others’ practices and research endeavors. She is still in contact with many of the colleagues she met at her first meeting and continues to collaborate with them. She noted that many of her accomplishments would not have been possible were it not for her ACCP membership.

Dr. El-Ibiary has given back to ACCP by fostering student involvement. She is currently an ACCP College of Pharmacy Faculty Liaison for Midwestern, and she has served as a reviewer for the Clinical Pharmacy Challenge, Pharmacotherapy, and PSAP. She was the public policy liaison for 3 years and the chair/chair-elect for the Women’s Health PRN. She is currently a faculty member for ACCP’s Updates in Therapeutics^®: The Pharmacotherapy Preparatory Review and Recertification Course, and she has presented regularly at ACCP Annual Meetings. She encourages others to join ACCP and hopes to continue to serve the College and help keep it growing so that others may benefit from it as she has.